Worldwide
IT leasing and financing market, encompassing leasing or financing IT
equipment, software, and IT-related services, exceeded $70 billion
worldwide in 2006, and will pass the $100 billion mark by 2010, growing at
a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 8%, according
to IDC.

The heads of Apple, Capital One, DreamWorks and Google each collect a
salary of just $1 a year, bucking the trend of digging for a bigger CEO
pay packet - the $1 million a year the typical CEO can get, reports
USA Today. While some experts laud CEOs for
making an important symbolic statement with their $1-a-year salaries,
others take a more cynical view.

India's export of services is expected to
touch $310.9 billion by 2011/12, powered by the booming software,
consultancy, engineering and tourism sectors, according
to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
survey. Services exports could surpass merchandise exports, which are
expected to more than double to $305.5 billion in the next five
years.

Planned job cuts plunged to a eight-month low in March,
with the housing-related industries of real estate, construction and mortgage lending announcing nearly as many job cuts in the first three months of 2007 as in all of 2006.

Corn planting will be up 15% this year to 90.5 million acres and
12.1 million more acres than in 2006, the biggest
U.S. corn planting since 1944, boosted by high demand from the ethanol industry and
strong export sales, reports AP, citing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
annual prospective plantings report.

The
US federal government's largest
telecommunications contract ever, a 10-year deal worth up to $48 billion,
was awarded to AT&T, Qwest
Communications and Verizon on Thursday, according to the General Services
Administration. The contract winners
beat out Sprint Nextel Corp.

A slowdown in business investment that the Federal Reserve expects to end
without much damage to the economy may instead linger long enough to hurt
job growth, according
a article from Bloomberg today. Some key highlights include:

The percentage of outgoing CEOs replaced by women increased 11% in 2006 and so far the upward trend appears to be continuing in
2007, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which tracks CEO changes daily.

Chief executive officer departures announced in
February jumped 11.4% to 124 from the 114 announced in January. The February figure was 13.4% higher than the
112 CEO changes in February 2006, according to Challenger, Gray &
Christmas survey data.

U.S. sales of gas-electric hybrid vehicles rose 28%
to 254,545 in 2006, but the rate of growth is starting to slow,
according to a report by R.L. Polk &
Co. Hybrids accounted for about 1.5% of U.S. vehicle sales last
year. Toyota Prius led the
segment with 42.8% of new registrations.